Looking for some advice about recovering bank charges. My fiancee's mum opened a bank account last year for the sole purpose of dealing with her direct debits and which also included two new insurance policies set up through the bank. In the first month the bank took off initial payments that were not explained to her and her account went overdrawn by about 4 quid which has resulted in her paying back unauthorized overdraft charges coming close to 400 pounds in the last year. Bank have admitted its their mistake but wouldn't refund the charges and set up an overdraft limit for her to pay this back overtime. She's on a limited income and has not managed to pay this back, although I don't think she should have to!

Well I wrote another letter for her worded very strongly and threatning to go to the financial ombudsman if the charges weren't refunded in full. Well a day after sending the letter she gets a phone call saying they will cancel all outstanding charges but won't refund any of the overpayments she made, the guy also suggested she would be wasting her time taking it to the financial ombudsman as it would take too long 🙄

So my question is, has anybody ever taken up a matter with the ombudsman and has it been worthwhile? She's inclined to accept the offer of removing the current overdrawn amount as its been nothing but a pain in the ass for the last year but she's still out of pocket by a few hundred pounds because of their error which they admit too.

bump! nobody with similar experiences?

Threaten to go to the local MP, the press etc. etc. unless a full refund is made. Kick up enough stink and you will get it back.

OK, it was a bit of a schoolboy error to threaten them with the ombudsman in this way, it tells them you don't really know what you're talking about unfortunately- the ombudsman can only ever become involved once you've fully explored the bank's complaints process, which you obviously haven't.

And on that note, going to the ombudsman at this point will be a total waste of time. You need to work through and document their entire complaints process or they will simply reject your complaint without ever considering whether it has any merit (which it sounds like it does, although equally it could be difficult to prove the initial error to the ombudsman's satisfaction, especially after a year's delay)

Don't bother with MPs , total nonsense, your MP won't be remotely interested and has no power to act regardless. Press, possibly but tbh it's not very likely to obtain a result, the banking industry's a bit past the point where the idea of bad press in the local rag bothers them at all. Mostly it'd just be prejudicial. Threats of press action in most banks (and similiar companies) will just cause the complaint to be kicked over to a higher level complaints person and possibly PR flack, which isn't really good news, you want your complaints to be handled by an idiot so that if they refuse you, they're more likely to have screwed up in some significant way along the line

(here's a stat for you, from an unnamed high street bank- over 20% of upheld complaints weren't upheld because of any initial error, instead they were upheld because of an error in the complaint handling process subsequent to the event which caused the complaint)

Thanks for taking the time to write all that Northwind, I maybe haven't given the full details, she tried to sort it through the branch initially, then asked them for the complaints department who she wrote to herself a while ago, they replied back admitting the error was all their fault, but refused to refund the charges. At that time they arranged an authorised overdraft so she could try to pay the charges back. Note that she's not really that clued up on bank speak and just tried to get on with paying the bank back. The authorised overdraft came to an end, still overdrawn and charges are starting again and this is where she asked us for advice. According to the banks complaint process (Lloyds TSB) they advise you to use the ombudsman if your not satisfied with their solution.

MP are great to threaten with, not because they do anything but they have the capability. If you want any government department sorted out just copy it to your MP, as they have to responsive to them – Lloyds as one of the saved banks may be vulnerable. You are trying to make yourself a pain that can be got rid of for a few quid. You should not need to follow through with any of threats.

this is their complaints procedure, she has followed this with no luck, it honestly seems like these people have no common sense, so the next step is Step 3, but as mentioned above don't want to get caught out on a technicality so any experience dealing with ombudsman appreciated.

If you have a complaint
We are committed to providing products and services of the very highest standards. If you feel that we haven’t lived up to your expectations in any way, we’d like to know so we can put things right for you.

To voice your concerns, please follow our 3 step procedure.

Step 1 – Let your usual point of contact know

Inform us of your complaint and how you think it could be resolved by:

calling into any branch,
calling us on 0845 3000 000 (+44 207 785 7654 from overseas), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
textphone on 0845 300 2283,
contacting your Relationship Manager or Business Manager, if you have one.
We’ll do all we can to resolve your complaint by the end of the next business day. If we can’t do this, we’ll write to you within five working days to tell you what we’ve done to resolve the problem, or acknowledge your complaint and let you know when you can expect a full response. We’ll also let you know the name and contact details of the person or team dealing with your case.

Step 2 – Follow up

To follow up your complaint with our Customer Service Recovery Centre you can:

ask the person you raised your complaint with to refer the matter to them,
write to Customer Service Recovery Centre, General Banking, Lloyds TSB, 2 Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2AB.

Step 3 – Financial Ombudsman Service

If we haven’t issued our ‘final response’ within eight weeks from the date you first raised your complaint, or if you’re dissatisfied with our response, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service for an independent review. The Financial Ombudsman Service will only consider your complaint once you’ve tried to resolve it with us, so please take up your concerns with us first and we’ll do all we can to help. Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR. Tel: 0845 080 1800.

Lloyds aren't in any way a "government department", your MP has no jurisdiction whatsoever. Empty threats are worse than no threats at all, they'll only ever undermine you as a negotiator.

It doesn't sound to me like she's completed the complaints process to the satisfaction of the Ombudsman- that means more than just dissatisfaction with the first response, you need to take it right through to a final response, and it doesn't sound like this has happened yet. When offered a settlement, you need to challenge it, and then follow that through to conclusion. Either the bank will say "That's the final decision, we can take this no further" or they'll come back with further comments, but without this (or a breakdown of procedure, ie no response) you shouldn't attempt to proceed to the ombudsman.

Unfortunately this:

"At that time they arranged an authorised overdraft so she could try to pay the charges back. Note that she's not really that clued up on bank speak and just tried to get on with paying the bank back. "

Sounds like bad news, since that could well be interpreted as having accepted their original response, way back when the incident first occurred. But, on the other hand it sounds like the bank have chosen to reopen negotiations with the more recent complaint so that would generally reopen the doors. Very stupid of them really, take advantage of it if you can.

We got charged £30odd for being £2 od for about 8 hours (until on of us realised and topped up the offending account), when my gf complained she didn't dispute that it was our mistake, just the cost of the penalty. When lloyds came back with a 'not our probem jack' response she threatened to remove the house deposit that we had saved up with them to HSBC, funnily enough they refunded us!

I have been fined a couple of times when a student I walked in to HSBC each time and said my I close my account as I can't afford to be fined in my financial state. Cha Ching there you go Mr have your £25 back.

get her to book a meeting with whoever at the branch – go with her…

Go to Citizens Advice, then small claims court.

If you have, as you say, a letter where they admit fault you must be home and dry. Take the paperwork for the court action to a meeting at the branch as a last chance to sort it out.

Having worked in banking for a reasonable amount of time, my experience is that being difficult works.

If the bank didn't explain the initial charges then arguably they were guilty of misselling and this is what gave rise to all the charges.

Lloyds are partly owned by the Government so whilst no MP has any control over them, they will more reluctant to risk bad PR from this quarter than others.

Finally, belittling the Ombudsman process is pretty dumb as well and will do them no favours.